Traditions
A Young Wives’ Tale?
Jerry Chan's Baby Blog -- Chapter 3
I have just eaten, perhaps, the strangest thing I have ever ingested in my life: three gel capsules filled with bits of my wife/baby’s dried, ground-up placenta. Why, you may ask, would I do such an utterly bizarre thing? To be honest, I’m not sure, but allow me to explain why I figure it wouldn’t hurt.
The night of our baby’s birth, as I was filling out all the procedural forms to help prep my wife for her C-section, the doctor asked me an unexpected question: “Do you want to keep the placenta?” (tai pan 胎盘 in Chinese). Not having any idea what she was talking about, I figured it would be best to follow my mother-in-law’s cue and nod accordingly.
